Poker News Roundup: Theodore McQuilkin, Tallinn Hosts, AcePlay Poker

It was a busy week for news on the poker scene with headlines popping up from all around the world. We’ll start off in the Czech Republic where an amateur earned a very big win at the World Series of Poker in Europe.

McQuilkin Wins WSOPE Event No. 4

Skill matters in the game of poker but everyone’s got a chance. That logic was proved true this weekend when Theodore McQuilkin of France claimed the 2017 World Series of Poker Europe six-max event. McQuilkin entered the $1,915 Six-Max at the World Series of Poker Europe as a relative unknown but outlasted a competitive field for the win.

McQuilkin is a recreational player, so little was expected of him but he was the last man standing. For his troubles, he took home $102,217 for first place, along with a gold bracelet. McQuilkin said it was the toughest tournament that he had ever played in as he was used to private games. He decided to step up and take on this field, and it looks like there might be a future in poker for him.

McQuilkin finished second in a $580 + 81 tournament at the BPT Deepstack Main Event (Event #2) in the middle of October, so it doesn’t seem like he’s a fluke. He also had to battle as he started in fifth place out of seven players at the final table, so it wasn’t handed to him at all. Jan Bednar, Andrej Desset, Jerry Odeen, Petr Setka and Maksym Shulga finished in that order at the final table, but the big winner was McQuilkin, who had to get back to Strasbourg to work for Monday.

Tallinn To Host Cash Game Festival

It has been announced that the Cash Game Festival will head back to Tallinn, Estonia, from November 15 to 19 at Olympic Park Casino. This is the first time that it has been back to Estonia since 2015. It returns to Tallinn, where there will be over 120 hours of non-stop games of all types of stakes from low to high. They’ll also be televising the Cash Game Festival on Twitch, so check those listings if you’re interested in watching.

The Cash Game Festival also added a wrinkle to its games in London where they gave a trophy to Jon Kyte for winning the most big blinds on any of the 10 feature tables. They’ll also be doing that in Tallinn.

AcePlay Poker Closes Free-Play Poker Room

Finally, it is off to Las Vegas, where AcePlay Poker has been operating as a free-play online room under the Stratosphere umbrella. However, it is closing in November. The company had been hoping that Nevada would legalize other forms of online gaming so that they could eventually offer more than just the poker but they haven’t been able to make progress. Casino owners like Sheldon Adelson and Steve Wynn are vehemently against it, so AcePlay wasn’t able to grow. As a result, they have closed down for now. It is possible that if the landscape changes and more online gaming is opened up in Nevada, they’ll come back online.